


Just a matter of time (before we learn how to fly)

by honestmischief, jaxonkreide



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Dragon Loki (Marvel), Dragon Tony Stark, Falling In Love, M/M, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:15:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21620821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honestmischief/pseuds/honestmischief, https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaxonkreide/pseuds/jaxonkreide
Summary: As one of the only dragons on Midgard, Tony lived in hiding from the whole world and realms far away, but the whispered promise of a soulmate always helped him to keep on moving.Loki on the other hand only just found out about his true heritage. It was dragon's blood that flowed through his veins.
Relationships: Loki/Tony Stark
Comments: 20
Kudos: 158





	Just a matter of time (before we learn how to fly)

**Author's Note:**

> This is Jax and I's piece for frostiron minibang! We're so excited to share it :)
> 
> Title is from When Can I See You Again? by Owl City

Long ago, dragons thrived throughout the nine realms. They lived in peace with the other species of the realms until the beginning of King Odin’s rule of Asgard. The Allfather considered the dragons to be a threat to the safety of the realms, but he really was just afraid of their power. Dragons were very territorial of their land, which went against Odin’s conquests. As a result, many of the dragons were mercilessly killed by Odin’s armies until there were very few left. It was a tragic end to the race of beasts, Odin believed. 

What Odin did not know was that not all of the dragons were killed. These few remaining dragons were forced to quickly evolve to stay out of Odin’s sight. The dragons magic changed them, altered their forms in order for them to blend in with the realm of their choosing. Their true dragon forms lied dormant while they waited for Odin’s rule to end. As centuries went on, dragons blood was not strong enough to produce more offspring. 

Anthony Stark was the first dragon to be born in over 1,000 years. He was born with small blue horns poking through his head, barely even an inch long. This was a surprise to both Howard and Maria Stark. They didn’t know why their child was different. As Anthony continued to grow, his horns grew with him.

Anthony shifted into his dragon form for the first time on his 7th birthday. Hiss dragon form was small, since he was still a child. He had light blue scales with fascinating white stripes. When looked at closely, the white stripes resembled the clouds in the sky. This was because Anthony was a dragon inclined to the wind and air. This allowed him to fly through the air with ease, even though it was only his first time. His first time in his true form was one of the best days of his life. He felt so _free_. Even though he was young, he could clearly tell how much more comfortable his dragon form was than his human form. He didn’t want to change back, even though both of his parents insisted that he needed to. 

It was upsetting, but Anthony knew that he had to change back eventually. That did not mean that he didn’t take his time. He spent most of the day flying around the backyard of the Stark mansion, making sure not to fly too high. He was smart enough to know that he could not be seen in his dragon form. His wings were stiff at first, but he _loved_ the feeling of flying. Anthony never wanted to touch the ground again. 

Before shifting back to his human form, Anthony’s attention was drawn to the clouds in the sky. He was shown images of his race’s history, from the time that they lived peacefully on Earth, all the way to when they were forced to hide from the king that hunted them. Anthony was scared that he would be hunted too.

_“You will be fine, child. You must not shift into your true form often in order to stay hidden,”_ they told him. 

Anthony wasn’t happy with that answer. He didn’t want to hide! Being a dragon was a gift and he felt that he shouldn’t have to pretend he wasn’t one. 

_"Your time will come, Anthony. When you meet the dragon that is the match of your soul, you will have to hide no longer.”_

Anthony hoped that they were right. 

Later on when he was back in his human form, Anthony sat on the couch with his mother while drinking a cup of hot chocolate. The warmth of the drink felt nice. He always preferred warmer things. 

“Why am I a dragon, Mom?” Anthony asked. It was a question that he had been wanting to ask since he realized that no one else had horns like him. 

“Our ancestors lived in their dragon forms until they evolved to take the form of humans. Your great grandmother told me many stories about them when I was a child” she said. Anthony had heard some of this story before, but he wanted to hear it again. He still didn’t understand _why_ he was a dragon. 

“But you aren’t a dragon,” he pointed out. 

“No, I’m not,” she agreed. “But I do prefer warmer temperatures, just like you.”

It wasn’t that Anthony hated the cold, he just needed to warm up sometimes to regulate his body temperature. It made sense since dragons are reptiles. 

“I must have been able to carry on the legacy of our ancestors, through you,” she grinned as she traced the outline of Anthony’s horns. 

“I’m going to be the best dragon ever!” Tony exclaimed.

“Of course you will,” Maria said, letting out a soft chuckle. “But for now, you will have to learn how to hide these horns.”

Anthony almost choked on his breath. “What?”

He couldn’t imagine hiding them. His horns had been there for as long as he could remember. They were a part of him, he couldn’t just make them go away. Anthony wouldn’t do it. He couldn’t. 

“People will notice them, Anthony,” she told him. 

“Is this because Dad doesn’t like them?” Anthony asked. 

Howard wasn’t quiet about his dislike of Tony’s true nature. He could barely even look at the horns. Anthony wanted more than anything to impress his father, but Howard would always maintain his attention on Anthony’s horns instead of his inventions that he made for him. 

“It’s important that you blend in, sweetheart,” she said, not answering the question. 

The next day, Anthony found himself lying on the grass in his backyard and looking at the clouds. He saw the dragons from yesterday and they continued to speak to him. They told him how to hide his horns. After a few minutes of hesitation, he hid them and was greeted with a massive headache right away. He hated it, but it was something that he was going to have to live with for the rest of his life. Shortly after, he was sent to boarding school and was forced to repress his true form for years. 

As Tony grew up, he continued to hide in his human form. He rarely shifted into his dragon form and only told Rhodey of his dragon nature. He tried to hide it from his college roommate at first, but it was hard to keep it a secret from the man that he lived with for four years. It ended up working out because Rhodey was able to keep people away from Tony when he was in his dragon form. Tony found that he had to shift into his dragon form every few weeks to avoid becoming restless. 

Throughout his years many of the people in his life left, but the dragons in the clouds remained a constant. When his parents died, he looked up to the clouds hoping to find that there was someone still watching over him. He didn’t particularly feel cared for by his parents, but he still felt the loss deep in his heart. He looked up to the sky after the funeral and was comforted right away. 

_“You are not alone, child. Your mate still lives, waiting for you two to meet.”_

It wasn’t the first time that his mate, or soul match, was mentioned by the dragons in the sky. Tony had no idea who they were talking about, but he liked the idea of having someone out there that was a match for him. If they were also a dragon, Tony looked forward to taking to the sky with them. He had never met another dragon before, so he was excited to know someone that understood him more than anyone else. 

Before he could meet his soulmate, Tony had to go through the motions of life while he waited. He didn’t lose hope that he would meet his soulmate until Afghanistan happened. Being a dragon gave him accelerated healing, but he was still weakened by the damage to his chest from the missile. Yinsen was able to stabilize him using a car battery to keep the shrapnel away from his heart, and then Tony was able to replace it with the arc reactor. Having something in his chest was uncomfortable, but Tony knew that he would have to get used to it. He had other things to worry about, such as creating an escape plan. 

It wasn’t like he could just shift into his natural form and fly out of the cave. He couldn’t let anyone find out the secret that he had been keeping for decades. Tony also wasn’t sure if he was even strong enough to shift his form. But it gave him the idea that he could still fly out of there, even if it wasn’t with wings. 

It took him three months, but he managed to escape. He built a flying suit of armor that was able to protect him in his weakened state while he was healing. If he were to get shot, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to heal much more. He was a dragon, but he had his limits. The suit design was something that Tony had been working on before he was kidnapped. He loved the feeling of flying, but he wasn’t able to do it often without anyone finding out that he was a dragon. He wanted to build the suit so he could feel the similar feeling of happiness when flying without anyone finding out that he wasn’t human. 

Tony was able to fly out of the cave in flames. He was not a fire dragon, but he still couldn’t be harmed by fire. When the suit crashed around him in the desert, he looked at the sky to see the familiar sight of the dragons looking over him.

_“You are strong. We knew that you would not leave your soulmate behind.”_

Tony didn’t even know his soulmate, but he was thankful that he still had the chance to meet them someday. But how much longer would he have to wait?

Rhodey found him shortly after he landed. In his best friend’s arms, he felt safe for the first time in months. When they returned to California, Tony held a press conference right away to announce the end of Stark Industries’ weapons development. Even though Tony would likely feel the arc reactor for the rest of his life, he still felt like a weight was lifted off of his chest. 

Things didn’t get much easier for Tony, but at least he wasn’t still trapped in a cave. Obie stole his arc reactor from his chest, palladium is apparently poisonous to dragons, and the Iron Man suit put him on SHIELD’s radar. He had to hide his true identity even more. 

Even though Tony was only able to shift into his dragon form in his workshop and he wasn’t able to fly, he felt comforted by the fact that he will eventually meet his soulmate, who will be just like him. Tony couldn’t wait to feel at home with another dragon by his side. 

\---

Loki normally took pride in his strategic planning, but this plan of his was not going as well as he wanted it to. They should never have made it to Jotunheim. Heimdall should not have let them use the Bifrost. His father should have stopped them from going. Loki did not want to make this much of a mess. He just needed to delay Thor’s coronation for a century or two, not start another war. The god of thunder was nowhere near ready to be the king of Asgard, and Loki was the only one who saw it. It was up to him to stop it from happening, and two frost giants invading the weapons vault was a perfect plan, Loki thought. It was perfect until Thor started this fight with the Jotuns. Loki was stupid to think that he could stop Thor when he had been blinded by war.

When the frost giant standing in front of him grabbed his arm, Loki was scared to look down at the horrible frostbite he probably had. He waited for the pain to come, but it never did. Instead, Loki felt something else. Was it relief? When Loki finally looked at his arm, he was shocked to see that it was turning blue. The same shade of blue as the skin of a Jotun. 

It made no sense. A touch from a frost giant causes frostbite for an Aesir. Loki was an Aesir, so he did not understand why his reaction was different. The blue continued to travel up his arm, and the stare he received from the frost giant sent a chill down his spine. Loki killed him before he had the chance to say anything. No one could see Loki’s arm like that and live. His arm did not return to it’s normal pale color and Loki was forced to look at the horrifying blue.

Before Loki was able to process what had happened, he felt a sudden pain shooting through his head. The pain was originating from both sides of his forehead and was so intense that it caused him to fall to the ground onto his knees. Time seemed to slow down and Loki became overwhelmed with the thousands of voices that erupted from the ice surrounding him. From those voices, Loki learned more about himself than he had in the 1,000 years that he had been alive.

The voices told Loki the fate of his people. Not the Aesir, the dragons. They explained to him how Odin sought to kill all of the dragons, and how Loki was one of the few that survived. Loki was a dragon with the innate ability to control ice, which was very fitting for a Jotun. The people of Jotunheim valued the dragons that lived on their realm until Odin slaughtered them all, except for Loki. The last thing that the voices told him was that he had a soulmate who was a dragon like him, and that he was patiently waiting for him. 

It all sounded really convincing Loki. There was a part of him that felt at home when he heard the voices that were too familiar to him. Even though what they said to him felt true, how could it be? Loki was not a dragon, and he definitely was not a Jotun. It was all too much for Loki to process, and he passed out with an explosion of ice around him. 

Loki woke up in the Bifrost observatory with Thor and his friends. His arm was back to its normal pale color. He did not remember how he got there- Odin must have brought them back to Asgard after Loki fainted. It seemed like Thor and the rest of them were also unconscious, since they were just waking up as well. As soon as everyone was awake and alert, Odin sent Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun, and Sif away into the city. 

Loki felt uncomfortable in his father’s presence. At this point, he wasn’t sure if Odin even was his father. But after hearing what Odin might have done to the dragons, Loki felt sick to his stomach. As a child, Loki used to love reading about the dragons that lived centuries ago. He thought that they were fascinating and beautiful, but Odin always tried to prevent Loki from reading about them. Loki never knew why, until now. 

As Odin banished Thor, Loki stayed silent. Odin sent Thor to Midgard and stripped him of his title. This was exactly what Loki wanted, but it didn’t feel as good as he thought it would. There was something inside of Loki that made him want to go to Midgard as well. The feeling came from his heart, and it felt like he _needed_ to leave. He immediately began planning his route through the branches of the Yggrasil. 

Odin looked right at Loki as soon as Thor was gone, but it did not look like Odin was going to banish Loki too. Instead, Odin looked pale and swayed back and forth as if he was losing his balance. He reached an arm out for Loki to take as he slowly fell to the ground. His eyes shut as he fell into the Odinsleep. 

Being in Asgard was unsettling for Loki. He didn’t feel like he belonged there anymore. He didn’t want to believe the dragons that called to him from the ice so easily, but he knew that they did not lie. Loki was an ice dragon from Jotunheim. The sight of his arm covered with blue skin was horrifying, but there was an odd sense of comfort within him. He couldn’t help but notice how good it felt not to hide for a brief moment, even though he was unaware that he was hiding. 

With Odin asleep and Thor banished, Loki quickly became aware that he would probably be given the throne. He did not want to be king, he never did, but he also did not anticipate ever being given the opportunity. There was still something inside of him that made him want to flee to Midgard, so that is exactly what he did.

**Author's Note:**

> Art from this fic can be found on [jaxonkreide](https://jaxonkreide.tumblr.com/post/189396635129/art-for-my-frostiron-minibang-collab-with). Author's tumblr is [lovewhatyoudooo](https://lovewhatyoudooo.tumblr.com)


End file.
